Thrive

As billionaires soak up so much of the available money in society and will only soak up more in the future, many people question the purpose of working 70-hour weeks, damaging their health, and neglecting their spouses and kids. A growing number have concluded that they prefer a rich life – that third metric – to a life of riches, and they have backed out of the rat race, or at least turned in their numbered bibs. For them, and for many of today’s self-help and business authors, Arianna Huffington’s four pillars of life – “Well-Being, Wisdom, Wonder and Giving” – make a great deal of sense and offer a humanized approach to living a well-rounded life. They inform much of the online conversation today, up and down the class-and-earnings ladder.

The architecture of how we live our lives is badly in need of renovation and repair.Arianna Huffington

Huffington’s ideas are timeless, and she draws on timeless sources, such as the Sufi poet Rumi and the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius. One measure of her commercial genius is that she convincingly aligns these sages of the ages with many contemporary issues. Recommending the thinking and work of Rumi, Aurelius, Gertrude Stein, David Foster Wallace, Goethe, Wordsworth and Aristotle to the bestseller-buying public is not a small feat. Give Huffington kudos for that. She also cites her spiritual sister, Agapi, and her mother, Elia, as inspirations. She attributes her sense of constant wonder and awe at every aspect of daily life to her mother, who discussed Greek philosophy with her daughters in the kitchen.